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.And that was all.The giant was gone, just that fast.Galaeron remained motionless, half-expecting to hear Aris's body come crashing back into the trees when the dragon realized it still didn't have him.When the giant's cries only grew more distant, he finally stood and looked down at Alustriel and Dove.They were about half the size of his thumb now, small enough that even an elf could swallow them."Aris was taken," he reported, "but I think it missed—"The leaves shuddered with a sudden rushing as some-thing settled in the treetops, then the trees began to groan and creak beneath some great weight.Galaeron was seized by such an aura of cold terror that his shadow rose inside him and set his mind whirling in a black tornado.Slowly, he raised his eyes, and above the treetops he saw what looked like black, bare limbs curving across the few visible wedges of starlit sky.Galaeron stood there, frozen in terror and confusion, trying to understand what he was seeing.An enormous black cord of bare vertebrae snaked across a smear of open sky a dozen paces to his right, bringing into view a fleshless, horned skull as large as a rothé.The skull slowly rotated around until Galaeron found himself looking into the burning blue star of a huge, lifeless eye.Galaeron! Alustriel's voice came to him inside his head, slicing through the black fog of fear that was clouding his mind.Now!Even in his dragon-inspired panic—and this was the worst he had ever experienced—Galaeron knew better than to raise Malygris's curiosity by swallowing the Chosen in front of him.Instead, acting as much by instinct as by plan, he spun on his heel and fled, bringing his hand to his lips as he ran and sucking the pair into his mouth.A huge claw crashed down above him, bringing with it a torrent of leaves and splintered wood and trapping him in a cage of bony talons."Not so fast, elf," Malygris said."You are the one I have been searching for."Galaeron swallowed and felt the Chosen sliding down his throat.With any luck, he had remembered not to chew._________CHAPTER EIGHT16 Flamerule, the Year of Wild MagicKeya Nihmedu stood in the first rank of the Company of the Cold Hand, trembling in the rumble and the flash of the attack, her head tipped back as she watched sheet after sheet of crimson blast magic roll across Evereska's flickering mythal.The city's archers answered by darkening the sky with their arrows, and elf battle mages stood spaced along the Meadow Wall, barraging the demolished terraces of the Vine Vale with crackling bolts and arcs of acrid flame.But, aside from the wall of bugbear mind-slaves behind which the phaerimm were hiding, nobody was dying.The thornbacks themselves were hovering at the edge of spell range, defended from Evereska's assaults by missile guards and spell shields, and they were even more careful to keeptheir ragged army of beholders and illithids scattered far up the vale where no arrows and few spells could do them harm.The elves were just as safe behind their mythal.While it stood, no attack—magic or otherwise—could cross the Meadow Wall to harm anyone inside.For perhaps the thousandth time in the past two days, Lord Duirsar strode by in front of the Company of the Cold Hand, his wrists crossed behind his back and his gaze fixed on the distant rank of phaerimm.The events of the last months had aged him as elves do not age, turning his long hair more gray than silver and stooping his shoulders beneath the weight of his worries."I see what they're doing, Lord Commander," Duirsar said to a tall moon elf—the acclaimed Kiinyon Colbathin—who was striding along at his side."If s going to work.""The mythal has held all these months, Lord Duirsar, even when it was cut off from the Weave." Attired in the battered but once-elegant armor of an Evereskan high noble, Kiinyon looked as care-worn and stressed the high lord himself."It will hold until Lord Commander Ramealaerub arrives."Duirsar spun on Kiinyon, wagging a bony finger in his face."/^Ramealaerub arrives, Lord Commander—if," he said."Even if he does, it may not be in time."Kiinyon did not argue the point At last report, Ramealaerub's army had still been camped in the Vyshaan Barrows, awaiting guides from Evereska.Unfortunately, sending guides by foot was impossible, and those who tried to teleport made it only as far as the vale's boundary before falling to ground in a bloody spray, no doubt intercepted by the same phaerimm magic that prevented inbound supplies and reinforcements from entering Evereska via its translocational gates.Duirsar turned and studied the phaerimm."They are wearing us down, Lord Commander, draining our defenses.""They are trying, milord.That is not the same as doing."Kiinyon glanced back at the long line of young runners bringing casks of fresh arrows down from the city and said, "It would take a decade to deplete Evereska's supply of arrow wood, and with the Weave available again, there is no need at all to worry about our magic.""You know what I am worried about, Lord Commander— and it is not arrows or lightning bolts," Duirsar replied, glancing up at the flickering mythal."I think the time has come for the lion to leave his den."Kiinyon scowled in Keya's direction, and she realized she was nodding in agreement She stopped but held his gaze until duty compelled him to turn his attention back to Lord Duirsar."Milord, that's what the enemy wants," Kiinyon said."They are trying to draw us out where we will be vulnerable to their attack.""Or exploiting our temerity to exhaust the mythal." Duirsar continued to study the sheets of magic crashing across the surface of the mythal and said, "In all my centuries, I have never seen it waver like this.The mythal needs our help, Kiinyon."The lord commander looked up, shielding his eyes against the flashing magic, and said, "We are doing all we can.At least our archers and our battle mages are holding them at a distance.Imagine the damage the thornbacks could do, were they free to stand beside the mythal itself."Keya had to bite her tongue to maintain the silence expected of a soldier in the ranks.Kiinyon Colbathin was one of the greatest spellblades Evereska had ever known— almost the equal of her own father, who had fallen saving the life of Khelben Arunsun—but he was an under-confident, and therefore timid, general
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